The aim is to understand causal effects of gender, socio-economic status, and ageing on body mass index (BMI) of individuals in three industrialized countries which are characterized by different BMI distributions.
Data comes from three large population representative panel surveys in the USA, Switzerland, and Germany including about 65 000 individuals and 254 000 measurements. Individuals report up to eleven times, measured annually (Switzerland) or bi-annually (USA and Germany). We use fixed effects models to interprete causal effects and random effects models to estimate coefficients of time invariant covariates. We find that not working increases BMI in the US and Germany, in women, and in lower educated individuals. A higher income increases BMI in men and in the US. Ageing is the driving force in all countries, in particular in Germany. Women increase their BMI faster than men, and the lower educated faster than those with a higher education. We conclude that the generally more deprived individuals (women, not working, lower educated, people from less affluent countries) suffer from a comparatively stronger BMI increase over their lifetime.

Public Employment Service (PES) agencies and caseworkers (CW) often have substantial leeway in the design and implementation of active labor market policies (ALMP) for the unemployed, resulting in variation of usage. This paper presents a novel framework in which this variation is used for the joint assessment of different ways in which ALMP effects can operate. We examine an additional layer of impacts - beyond the treatment effects on the treated job seekers - called regime effects, which potentially affect all job seekers and which are defined by the extent to which programs are intended to be used in a market. We propose a novel method to jointly estimate regime effects for two types of programs, supportive (carrots) and restrictive (sticks) programs. We apply this to contrast regime and treatment effects on unemployment durations, employment, and post-unemployment earnings using register data that contain PES and caseworker identifiers for about 130,000 job seekers. The results show that “carrots” and “sticks” treatments prolong unemployment, but carrots increase earnings whereas sticks decrease them. We find regime effects of a similar order of magnitude. Higher intended usage of carrots and sticks reduces unemployment durations, but carrots raise earnings whereas sticks decrease them. We also find interaction effects between carrots and sticks policies. Regime effects are economically substantial. Our comprehensive cost-benefits analyses show that modest increases in the intended usage of carrots and sticks reduce the total cost of an unemployed individual by up to 10%.

How do men and women's family life courses differ? Are gender differences in family life courses greater at higher or lower educational levels? And how does the intersection of gender, education and family life courses vary across different macro-structural contexts? This paper addresses these questions comparing East and West Germany during the German division (1961–1990). We thereby compare a strong male breadwinner model in a social market economy in West Germany and a universal breadwinner model in a state socialist system in the East. The analysis uses data from the German National Education Panel (NEPS) and employs two new sequence analysis tools: sequence discrepancy analysis and the implicative statistic for analyzing sequences of typical states. These tools enable us to scrutinize the degree, content, and timing of differences in family trajectories between men and women of different educational levels in the two sub-societies. In line with our expectations, family life courses were more de-standardized in the West compared to the East, and this occurred to the same extent for men and women in both contexts. While we find moderate gender differences in family life courses across all educational groups in the strong male breadwinner context in West Germany, for East Germany gender differences were significant among the medium and lower educated, but not among the highly educated. These findings underline the fact that the intersection of gender and education for family life courses is highly context-specific. They further suggest that different patterns of assortative mating play a key role for gender differences in family life courses. We demonstrate the added value of sequence discrepancy analysis and the implicative statistic to illuminate differences in longitudinal life courses between men and women or other social groups.

Background: The role of timing of retirement on cognitive functioning in old age is inconclusive so far. Therefore, the present study set out to investigate the association of timing of retirement with cognitive performance and its interplay with key correlates of cognitive reserve in a large sample of older adults. Methods: Two thousand two hundred and sixty three older adults served as sample for the present study. Different psychometric tests (TMT A, TMT B, Mill Hill) were administered. In addition, individuals were interviewed on their retirement, occupation, educational attainment, and regarding 18 leisure activities that have been carried out after retirement. Results: Earlier retirement (compared to retirement at legal age) was significantly associated with better performance in the TMT A, the TMT B, and the Mill Hill vocabulary test. Moderation analyses showed that in individuals with a moderate number of leisure activities in old age, earlier retirement was related to better cognitive performance, but not in those with a relatively large number of leisure activities. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that entering leisure activities as additional predictor significantly increased explained variance in the cognitive measures over and above all other investigated markers of cognitive reserve (i.e., occupation and education). Conclusions: Present data further corroborate the view that leisure activities even in old age may lead to further enrichment effects and thereby may be related to better cognitive functioning. The role of engaging in activities in the context of major life events such as retirement is discussed.

Introduction: Findings on the association of speaking different languages with cognitive functioning in old age are inconsistent and inconclusive so far. Therefore, the present study set out to investigate the relation of the number of languages spoken to cognitive performance and its interplay with several other markers of cognitive reserve in a large sample of older adults. Methods: Two thousand eight hundred and twelve older adults served as sample for the present study. Psychometric tests on verbal abilities, basic processing speed, and cognitive flexibility were administered. In addition, individuals were interviewed on their different languages spoken on a regular basis, educational attainment, occupation, and engaging in different activities throughout adulthood. Results: Higher number of languages regularly spoken was significantly associated with better performance in verbal abilities and processing speed, but unrelated to cognitive flexibility. Regression analyses showed that the number of languages spoken predicted cognitive performance over and above leisure activities/physical demand of job/gainful activity as respective additional predictor, but not over and above educational attainment/cognitive level of job as respective additional predictor. There was no significant moderation of the association of the number of languages spoken with cognitive performance in any model. Conclusions: Present data suggest that speaking different languages on a regular basis may additionally contribute to the built-up of cognitive reserve in old age. Yet, this may not be universal, but linked to verbal abilities and basic cognitive processing speed. Moreover, it may be dependent on other types of cognitive stimulation individuals also engaged in during their life course.

Recent discoveries in the field of prospective memory (PM) show higher accuracy for remembering intentions in which prospective cue and action are strongly associated. In two experiments presented in this paper participants encoded both high and low association cue–action pairs and were later tested on both prospective and retrospective PM components. Results of both studies show higher PM accuracy for the low association pairs compared to high association ones but only for the prospective component (across both Experiments) and only when a high association cue was presented first (Experiment 2). This finding was accompanied by longer study times for the low association pairs and study times were functionally related to later performance (across both Experiments). In the retrospective component higher accuracy was observed for pairs with high level of association (but only in the first Experiment). Data are discussed in the context of metacognitive processes possibly related to the encoding of an intention as well as cue monitoring in case of PM tasks with high memory load and varying task difficulty.

OBJECTIVE: Empirical evidence on prospective memory (PM) in ADHD is inconsistent. Differential findings have been related to differential executive control demands. This study aimed at exploring the impact of inhibitory control on event-based PM performance in ADHD. METHOD: Eighteen adults with ADHD and 18 controls performed a word categorization task with an embedded event-based PM task. In addition, participants performed an acoustically presented task that put either low or high loads on inhibitory control processes. RESULTS: Inhibitory load did not differentially affect PM performance: Across both inhibitory load conditions, individuals with ADHD showed reduced PM performance when compared with controls. Moreover, inhibitory load did not influence PM performance across both groups. CONCLUSION: Possibly, full inhibitory control resources are not necessary during the entire duration of an event-based PM task, but may suffice to be employed after cue detection when needing to interrupt the ongoing task. (J. of Att. Dis. 2019; 23(1) 51-56).

A minimal amount of research has examined the cognitive predictors of children's performance in naturalistic errand-type planning tasks such as the Zoo Map task of the Behavioral Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome for Children (BADS-C). Thus the current study examined prospection (i.e. the ability to remember to carry out a future intention) executive functioning and intelligence markers as predictors of performance in this widely used naturalistic planning task in 56 children aged 7- to 12-years-old. Measures of planning prospection inhibition crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence were collected in an individual differences study. Regression analyses showed that prospection (rather than traditional measures of intelligence or inhibition) predicted planning suggesting that naturalistic planning tasks such as the Zoo Map task may rely on future-oriented cognitive processes rather than executive problem solving or general knowledge.

Objective impact of working memory (WM) training on everyday life functioning has rarely been examined and it is not clear whether WM training gains are transferred to reasoning abilities. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of a verbal WM training in older adults in terms of specific gains and transfer effects to everyday life and reasoning abilities. community dwelling older adults (from 65 to 75 years of age) were randomly assigned to a training or an active control group. The specific gains in a WM task similar to the one trained were assessed. Transfer effects to everyday life and reasoning abilities were also examined using (i) objective performance-based tasks (the Everyday Problem Test and the Timed Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale) and (ii) the Cattell test and Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices respectively. the trained group showed specific benefits and transfer effects to one of the everyday abilities measures (the Everyday Problem Test) and in the two reasoning tasks. These results suggest that WM training can positively impact cognitive functioning and more importantly older adults' abilities in everyday living.

The current study applied a 2 × 2 experimental design to investigate the effects of ongoing task absorption on event-based prospective memory performance of children aged 3 and 5 years. Children were required to label pictures as ongoing task but to remember to refrain from picture naming and to respond to the target cues in a different way as the prospective memory task. Two differently absorbing ongoing tasks (high absorbing scenario game task vs. low absorbing computer-based task) were administered. Results indicated that prospective memory performance of 5-year-old children was significantly better than that of 3-year-old children. Ongoing task absorption affected the ongoing task performance of preschoolers, but not overall prospective memory performance. Only the 3-year-olds were negatively affected by high ongoing task absorption, which was not the case for the 5-year-olds. The findings are discussed within the light of the multiprocess theory.

The present study targeted the question of whether focal versus nonfocal prospective memory (PM) can be distinguished on a construct level and if so to what extent individual differences in these two constructs are related to individual differences in facets of controlled attention and episodic memory. 315 individuals (aged 20–68 years) were administered focal and nonfocal PM tasks as well as indicators measuring updating inhibition shifting and episodic memory. Latent variable modeling revealed that focal and nonfocal PM were two distinguishable but related constructs. Furthermore analyses showed that focal PM was more strongly related to inhibition while nonfocal PM was more strongly related to shifting. Present data support the conceptual hypothesis that focal and nonfocal PM should be conceptualized as two distinguishable but related constructs. Moreover they suggest that both have some but distinct associations to controlled attention.

Background: In the elderly, physical activity (PA) enhances cognitive performances, increases brain plasticity and improves brain health. The neurotrophic hypothesis is that the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is implicated in brain plasticity and cognition, is triggered by PA because motoneurons secrete BDNF into the bloodstream during exercise. Individual differences in cognitive performance may be explained by individual differences in genetic predisposition. A single nucleotide polymorphism on the BDNF gene, BDNFVal66Met, affects activity-dependent BDNF secretion. This study investigated the influence of the BDNFVal66Met polymorphism on the relationship between PA and controlled inhibition performance in older adults. Methods: A total of 114 healthy elderly volunteers (mean age = 71.53 years old) were evaluated. Participants were genotyped for the BDNFVal66Met polymorphism. We evaluated inhibitory performance using choice reaction times (RT) and error rates from a Simon-like task and estimated their PA using two self-reported questionnaires. We established 4 groups according to PA level (active vs. inactive) and BDNFVal66Met genotype (Met carriers vs. Val-homozygous). The results were analyzed using ANOVA and ANCOVA, including age, gender and, body mass index as covariates. Results: The BDNFVal66Met polymorphism interacted with PA on controlled inhibition performance. More specifically, inactive Val-homozygous participants exhibited a lower inhibition performance than active Val homozygotes and inactive Met carriers; the former had a higher error rate without differences in RT. Conclusions: Differences between individuals on inhibitory performance may be partially understood by the interaction between genetic influence in BDNF secretion and PA level. The results of this study clearly support the neurotrophic hypothesis that BDNF synthesis is an important mechanism underlying the influence of physical activity on brain structure and functions.

The research related to the working alliance in career counseling is reviewed in this article. This review indicates that the working alliance does typically increase over the course of career counseling. Furthermore in career counseling, most of the correlations between the working alliance and various outcome measures were significant and hovered around .30, which is consistent with findings related to the correlation between the working alliance and the outcome in psychotherapy. In terms of factors that predict the working alliance’s contribution to career counseling outcome, there is a lack of studies and more research is needed in this area. This article also provides suggestions for practice in career counseling and recommendations for future research.